The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Palestinians: The Power Struggle between Young Guard and Old Guard - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

Who is supplying Mohamed
Dahlan with money? The United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is their cash that
has enabled Palestinians in refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip to purchase weapons and buy loyalty for Dahlan in preparation for
the post-Abbas era -- especially disgruntled young Fatah activists in
the West Bank who feel that Abbas and the PA leadership have turned
their backs on them.

This power struggle will not end with the departure of Mahmoud
Abbas. The next Palestinian president will surely be one of Abbas's
current loyalists. This in itself will drive Dahlan and his ilk to
continue railing against the old guard.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas faces a real threat; its name is Mohamed Dahlan.

Abbas has become obsessed with Dahlan, according to insiders. The PA
president, they report, spends hours each day discussing ways to deal
with the man and his supporters. And, it is rumored, Abbas's nights are
not much better.

Backed by at least three Arab countries, Dahlan, a former Palestinian
security commander from the Gaza Strip, seems to have unofficially
joined the battle for succession in the PA.

The 54-year-old Dahlan, young enough to be Abbas's son, continues to
deny any ambition to succeed Mahmoud Abbas as president of the PA. Yet
Dahlan's continued efforts to establish bases of power in both the West
Bank and Gaza Strip belie his claims.

Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Mohamed Dahlan (right), a
former Fatah security commander, have, for the past five years, been at
each other's throats. The two were once close allies and had worked
together to undermine the former PA president, Yasser Arafat. (Image
sources: U.S. State Dept., M. Dahlan Office)

Abbas's top aides talk about the cash that Dahlan has lavished on
many Palestinians, thereby winning their support. Any Palestinian
activist whose request for financial aid is turned down by Abbas's
office can always turn to Dahlan, who is not inclined to disappoint
those who seek his help.

Who is supplying Dahlan with money? The United Arab Emirates. It is
their cash that has enabled Palestinians in refugee camps in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip to purchase weapons and buy loyalty for Dahlan in
preparation for the post-Abbas era.

Unsurprisingly, Abbas and the PA leadership are less than
enthusiastic about this turn of events. Since 2011, they have taken a
series of measures to stop Dahlan, but to no avail.

First, Abbas ordered his security forces to raid Dahlan's home in
Ramallah and confiscate documents and equipment. Second, the Fatah
Central Committee, a body dominated by Abbas loyalists, voted in favor
of expelling Dahlan from its ranks. Third, the PA, at the behest of
Abbas, filed charges in absentia against Dahlan, accusing him of financial corruption and embezzlement.

As part of a smear campaign, Abbas and the PA have claimed that
Dahlan is a murderer who has Palestinian blood on his hands. They have
also been saying that Dahlan stole hundreds of millions of dollars and
is in collusion with the Palestinians' enemies.

Still, Dahlan appears to be far from vanishing from the Palestinian
political scene. In fact, the campaign against him seems to have
increased Dahlan's resolve to continue and even step up his efforts to
bring down Abbas and his veteran loyalists in the Palestinian Authority.

So what is fueling Dahlan's success? Abbas and some of his top aides
point a finger at the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the wealthy Gulf
country that has been harboring and funding Dahlan for the past five
years. Dahlan's ties with the ruling family in the UAE are so strong
that he has been appointed as a "special advisor" to Sheikh Mohamed bin
Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme
Commander of the UAE Forces. Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah
call Dahlan the "spoiled lad" of Sheikh Al Nahyan.

United Arab Emirates money has helped Dahlan and his supporters buy
loyalty among Palestinians, especially disgruntled young Fatah activists
in the West Bank who feel that Abbas and the PA leadership have turned
their backs on them.

But while the influential Gulf country provides Dahlan with shelter
and funds, two other Arab countries -- Egypt and Jordan -- grant him a
certain degree of legitimacy and a platform for his public activities,
including those directed against Abbas and some of his top advisors and
aides in Ramallah. Dahlan maintains a close friendship with Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with whom he has met a number of times
in Cairo over the past two years. Recently, Dahlan visited Amman and met
with several Jordanians and Palestinians, much to the dismay of Abbas
and the Palestinian Authority leadership.

Dahlan's close ties with the Egyptians and Jordanians are the force
driving the tensions that have erupted between Abbas and both Sisi and
Jordan's King Abdullah.

According
to Palestinian sources in Ramallah, Abbas has expressed outrage over
the way the Egyptians and Jordanians have openly embraced and endorsed
the man he considers his greatest threat. Upon learning of Dahlan's
visit to Jordan, Abbas refrained from meeting with government officials
in Amman (where he has a private house) on his way to visit other
countries. (Abbas routinely travels around the world through Jordan).
Abbas was particularly enraged when he learned that King Abdullah had
given Dahlan and his family members Jordanian citizenship.

Dahlan's visit to Jordan last April is believed to be in the context
of his effort to establish bases of power among Palestinians living in
the kingdom. According to some reports, Dahlan has already succeeded in
rallying dozens of Palestinians from refugee camps in Jordan behind him.

"Dahlan is President Abbas's worst nightmare," remarked a senior
Palestinian official in Ramallah who has been closely following the
complicated ties between the two men over the past two decades. "You can
be fired or punished in various ways if the president suspects that you
are in touch with Dahlan."

Dahlan founded and headed the Palestinian Preventive Security Force
in the Gaza Strip shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords. After
the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, he became one of Abbas's closest
confidants, later appointed by Abbas as National Security Advisor to the
Palestinian Authority leadership. In 2006, he was elected as a Fatah
member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for the Khan Yunis
district in the southern Gaza Strip.

How Abbas and Dahlan came to be at one another's throats is food for
speculation. Some Palestinians believe that the ill-will between the two
is purely personal, and began when Dahlan was overheard belittling
Abbas's two sons, Yasser and Tareq. Others say that Abbas decided to get
rid of Dahlan because he suspected that Dahlan was plotting to stage a
coup against him.

Then again, 81-year-old Abbas is highly suspicious of Palestinians
such as Dahlan who have too much ambition and charisma. Abbas is also
very overprotective of his family, particularly his two sons. Other
Palestinian officials, such as Salam Fayyad and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who
have dared to challenge Abbas in various ways have found themselves
stripped of power and money. Abbas's campaign against his critics has
been notably successful so far, with the exception, of course, of
Dahlan. Those officials who continue to live in the West Bank now keep
their mouths shut. Dahlan, of course, does not.

Based in Abu Dhabi, Dahlan is beyond Abbas's long arm. Dahlan's close
ties with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and, to some
degree, Jordan, has given him immunity against Abbas, who is keen to
pacify these three important Arab countries. Besides, Abbas is well
aware that he is surrounded by too many wolves, and that opening a new
front with Dahlan and his friends/patrons in the Arab countries could
put him over the edge.

Buoyed by impressive political and financial aid, Dahlan pulls no punches when it comes to Abbas.

Last year, Dahlan chose a Jordanian online newspaper to launch a
scathing attack on his former boss. In the eyes of some Palestinian
political analysts, Dahlan's platform was far from random. They argue
that the online newspaper could not have published Dahlan's statements
had it not received permission from the highest echelons in the royal
palace in Amman. Some Jordanian writers and journalists have in the past
been imprisoned for insulting some Arab leaders or countries. Not in
this case, where Dahlan made the charges against Abbas.

So what did Dahlan share in the interview with the Ammon News website, which described him as a charismatic leader and the number one enemy of Abbas?

Dahlan accused Abbas of "hiding" $600 million following the death of
Yasser Arafat. According to Dahlan, former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
gave Abbas a total of $1.4 billion, but when Abbas was asked about the
sum he claimed he had only received $800 million. He accused Abbas's
sons of corruption, claiming their fortune was estimated at over $300
million. He also reminded that Abbas was no longer a legitimate
president because his term in office had expired in January 2009.

"What kind of a president is this who lives in Amman and rules in
Ramallah?" Dahlan asked in the interview. "Abbas's problem is that when
the he sits with me he doesn't feel he's a president. No one respects
him, not in Palestine and not abroad."

Abbas's aides have dismissed the charges as "lies and fabrications,"
saying they are in the context of Dahlan's ongoing effort to undermine
the Palestinian Authority leadership and "serve the agenda of regional
powers and foreign parties."

Sources close to Abbas have also claimed
that the Jordanian news website that gave Dahlan a platform for his
attacks on the PA was on the payroll of Dahlan's patrons in the United
Arab Emirates. They also claim that Dahlan has similarly used UAE funds
to purchase a popular Egyptian online newspaper.

The rivalry between Abbas and Dahlan is emblematic of the power
struggle between the old guard and young guard in Fatah, the largest
Palestinian faction that dominates the Palestinian Authority and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

This is a power struggle that has been raging for the past three
decades. Dahlan is a representative of the young guard, whose members
are strongly opposed to the continued hegemony and monopoly of the old
guard over the decision-making process. Dahlan and the young guard are
mostly from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, grassroots leaders who have
long been complaining that they have been marginalized by the veteran
leaders of the Palestinians who came from Lebanon and Tunisia after the
signing of the Oslo Accords and who continue to block the emergence of
new and younger leaders.

This power struggle will not end with Abbas's departure. The next
Palestinian president will surely be one of Abbas's current loyalists.
This in itself will drive Dahlan and his ilk to continue railing against
the old guard. Dahlan's ghost will continue to haunt not only any
future Palestinian president, but also Abbas in his grave.

Who, then, one might ask, will step up and lead the Palestinians away
from the edge of their own abyss? For now, it does not seem that there
is a Palestinian leader who has the power or credentials to stop the
deterioration.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8478/palestinians-power-struggle Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.